Drone Bays for Carriers

[Shryke]

Or we can just reclassify and rebalance carriers and eliminate the category. Seems like it would be a lot less work and cause a lot less drama.

This idea just makes me think of Eve.

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[Unlucky_Soul]

I somehow think this will contribute to lag

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[kenshin156]

Or we can just reclassify and rebalance carriers and eliminate the category.

But that is the same thing that happened to destroyers, who are just bad cruisers now. And that is not that good of a thing.
Eliminating the purpose of one shipclass simply because, and making it another already existing shipclass is just... meh.
As I see it, the Carrier - in this scenario - is supposed to be a capital vessel choice against multiple snubs.
The same as the Destroyer was a semi-capital vessel choice against battleships.
Think about it. You make a carrier another shipclass and you have to balance it to that shipclass. Plus, you'll have to resize the ship, because the size difference just makes it bad.
Carriers are simply not used like this. Why make it so really nobody uses them, instead of spending a bit more time and actually making them a viable choice?

[Shryke]

Carriers launching drones is hardly a solution for a capital class countering multiple snubs. If they behave like NPCs, and making them behave like anything more than that is going to be considerable work, they will be useless. It's quite easy for snubs just to switch off and deal with the 5 or so drones for 30 seconds or so. If the drones are capable enough to seriously deter snubcraft then you will need to rebalance snubs. I guess what I'm trying to say is that no ship should be able to survive an encounter where he is facing multiple enemies and expect to way away with a shit-eating victory grin (no matter how much it costs) unless he is vastly more skilled. This is precisely why LFs and HFs are rare - VHFs simply dominate them.

Now, if rebalancing is done badly, then yes they will end like destroyers as you claim. Or you know, do it well.

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[pillow]

I somehow think this will contribute to lag

Didn't the server get some recent upgrades to stop it from lagging?

[Titan*]

This idea just makes me think of Eve.

EVE isnt the only game that have drone carriers

Carriers launching drones is hardly a solution for a capital class countering multiple snubs. If they behave like NPCs, and making them behave like anything more than that is going to be considerable work, they will be useless. It's quite easy for snubs just to switch off and deal with the 5 or so drones for 30 seconds or so. If the drones are capable enough to seriously deter snubcraft then you will need to rebalance snubs. I guess what I'm trying to say is that no ship should be able to survive an encounter where he is facing multiple enemies and expect to way away with a *****-eating victory grin (no matter how much it costs) unless he is vastly more skilled. This is precisely why LFs and HFs are rare - VHFs simply dominate them.

Now, if rebalancing is done badly, then yes they will end like destroyers as you claim. Or you know, do it well.

Well, remember old npcs they were very good also it is possible to increase AI strength by editing .ini (pilots_population.ini is the one we should look at i think) files

Drones shouldnt be powerfull than players anyway. However Drones should damage player bombers and fighters of course bombers will take more damage, they will need a weapon that can damage player shields/hull though

I think Fighter Drones will be more better vs player bombers and gunboats(if supported by other players otherwise gunboat will eat drones)
and Bomber Drones will be good vs Battleships if they will have huge hp like 80-100k
5 Bomber Drone can do 660K damage if they hit a battleship with SNAC and I am sure bomber drones can fire another salvo to battleship before they die
If they die you can send another wing of bomber drones (if you have full Bomber Drone setup)

I somehow think this will contribute to lag

Didn't the server get some recent upgrades to stop it from lagging?

^

[eigos]

It'd definitely give carriers something to do and would even the odds against too skilled snub pvpers. I like this idea Titan.

+1 for this.

And it has been discussed before, there were demos of it on video (god knows whether that video is still on youtube).

I, for one, think an optional NPC escort for carriers won't break the game if we had it.
Should also free the hands of the carrier admiral, to have time typing out his RP.

[Shryke]

EVE isnt the only game that have drone carriers

Didn't say it was.

Well, remember old npcs they were very good also it is possible to increase AI strength by editing .ini (pilots_population.ini is the one we should look at i think) files

Drones shouldnt be powerfull than players anyway. However Drones should damage player bombers and fighters of course bombers will take more damage, they will need a weapon that can damage player shields/hull though

I think Fighter Drones will be more better vs player bombers and gunboats(if supported by other players otherwise gunboat will eat drones)
and Bomber Drones will be good vs Battleships if they will have huge hp like 80-100k
5 Bomber Drone can do 660K damage if they hit a battleship with SNAC and I am sure bomber drones can fire another salvo to battleship before they die
If they die you can send another wing of bomber drones (if you have full Bomber Drone setup)

Yes I remember old NPCs and I remember how everyone hated them (hence why they're gone). The idea of getting them on-demand is, to me, simply silly. Giving them more HP than player controlled snubs is even more silly. 100k HP? That's a tiny gunboat, not a drone.

Sorry, but the idea that a carrier can just sit back, type a few commands in console and put on a shit-eating grin while the enemy battleship just gets pounded by 5 SNACs in waves is just cheesy and removes any skill factor from piloting the ship other than kiting. Hell, I can already see a scenario where a carrier basically does a drive-by where it launches drones and goes cruises away.

Anyway, not likely to change each other's minds so might as well agree to disagree.

[Titan*]

EVE isnt the only game that have drone carriers

Didn't say it was.

Well, remember old npcs they were very good also it is possible to increase AI strength by editing .ini (pilots_population.ini is the one we should look at i think) files

Drones shouldnt be powerfull than players anyway. However Drones should damage player bombers and fighters of course bombers will take more damage, they will need a weapon that can damage player shields/hull though

I think Fighter Drones will be more better vs player bombers and gunboats(if supported by other players otherwise gunboat will eat drones)
and Bomber Drones will be good vs Battleships if they will have huge hp like 80-100k
5 Bomber Drone can do 660K damage if they hit a battleship with SNAC and I am sure bomber drones can fire another salvo to battleship before they die
If they die you can send another wing of bomber drones (if you have full Bomber Drone setup)

Yes I remember old NPCs and I remember how everyone hated them (hence why they're gone). The idea of getting them on-demand is, to me, simply silly. Giving them more HP than player controlled snubs is even more silly. 100k HP? That's a tiny gunboat, not a drone.

Sorry, but the idea that a carrier can just sit back, type a few commands in console and put on a *****-eating grin while the enemy battleship just gets pounded by 5 SNACs in waves is just cheesy and removes any skill factor from piloting the ship other than kiting. Hell, I can already see a scenario where a carrier basically does a drive-by where it launches drones and goes cruises away.

Anyway, not likely to change each other's minds so might as well agree to disagree.

Why We have carriers then? They are so stupid and wrong in the mod, have nothing to do but die in battle. Giving them purpose, changing their gameplay is the best thing to do
Second option is changing them to Battleships/Dreadnoughts.
Also a player in a fighter have more than 200k-250k* hp because of REGENS and that is even more silly than everything you see here

Sorry, but the idea that a carrier can just sit back, type a few commands in console and put on a *****-eating grin while the enemy battleship just gets pounded by 5 SNACs in waves is just cheesy and removes any skill factor from piloting the ship other than kiting.

That's what carriers do, they are not battleship. I am sure you know difference between carriers/battleships

[Shryke]

Like I said, the smart thing to do is to rework carriers into something else and focus development time on features that are already poorly implemented instead of developing new ones.

Players in snubs may have regens but can get instakilled if they are not careful as a typical VHF will have about 24-26k hull. And have to actually be up close to do any damage, putting themselves in range of some nasty weaponry.

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